Ronald Finwall

Ronald Finwall

1933-2018

Born in Brooten, MN, Ronald Keith Finwall was a prolific artist and intellectual, creating a prodigious amount of artwork and writings throughout his life. Ronald studied art at Hamline University and Claremont Graduate University, at which time he was drafted into the Korean War. His experience in the war left an indelible mark on him personally. It shaped the way he led his artistic life, as an extremely private, but intensely devoted art maker. He worked most of the time in complete seclusion, shunning the art world at large, creating paintings and multi-media work. At the end of the war, he spent over a year in Korea before coming back to Minnesota to start a family with his wife Beverly. His work spans many periods of interest as can be seen in the vastly different styles that it manifested throughout the years. He was an artist of great diversity, always searching and learning, using his work as a springboard for intellectual investigation. This is evidenced in the large catalog of work he created throughout his life. He worked with many different mediums, oil, acrylic, collage. Many of his early paintings were repurposed for use in later works, cut up and reassembled for his later collage work. Ronald was a very active artist right up to his sudden passing. Nothing seemed to stop him from creating.

Almanac Show: One Greater MN Reporter Kaomi Goetz covers Ron's story as well as another Winona artist and how they fit into the Art Brut (Outsider Artist) click here